Over the past 12 years, Kraken has built a distinct remote-first culture alongside its crypto-first values. In 2022, we released our Kraken Culture doc that dove deep into our globally inclusive culture and made our values abundantly clear to the wider world. We share this as required reading for all prospective candidates several times before their first interview, and use this to prioritize candidates during the hiring process who are passionate about ensuring the crypto ecosystem succeeds. These candidates usually align with our company values and genuinely enjoy working with us to improve the industry.

We’ve found that our intensely mission-driven culture naturally correlates to high levels of employee engagement. A recent internal survey found that nearly 81% of our Krakenites are engaged with their work, compared to only 31% of workers in a Gartner survey from June 2023. However, most importantly, 94% of our Krakenites, recognize how their day to day work is impacting the broader success of the company. We believe it’s vital for our people to understand how their contribution towards building industry-leading products and services will advance our company mission. Our teams all row in the same direction, towards the same goal, with everyone understanding their role in producing a successful operation.

Link to our Kraken Culture document – https://kraken-culture.notion.site/

Both Jesse Powell (Kraken’s Chairman of the Board and Co-Founder) and David Ripley (Kraken’s CEO) embody the values of the Kraken organization and the broader cryptocurrency industry. In their own right, each is a pioneer of the cryptocurrency movement and are committed to improving the world through the accelerated adoption of crypto assets.

For example, Jesse personally authored Kraken’s cultural document, which was released in June 2022, to realign our internal company culture and the shared values we expect for existing and prospective Krakenites. Jesse has spent over a decade in the crypto industry, launching Kraken in 2011, and has since become a recognized thought leader for the crypto movement. Likewise, David has been pivotal to designing and implementing Kraken’s Mission, and distilling our company values into accessible language for others to adopt. David, and the rest of the c-suite team at Kraken, actively advocate for the adoption of this transformative technology. Since our realignment, we’ve seen a surge in Krakenites understanding and rallying behind our mission. At our most recent internal survey, over 95% of Krakenites noted that they had a deep understanding of our values and how these can be embodied in day-to-day work.

Link to Kraken’s Culture document – https://kraken-culture.notion.site/

With a distributed model, we have Krakenites living and working in more than 60+ countries and speaking more than 50 languages. This globally inclusive approach positions us to hire some of the best and brightest minds based on merit, regardless of proximity to a recognized tech hub – such as Silicon Valley. Our teams, which are built to cover all corners of the planet, have a strong foundation of respect for each other. By cultivating a globally inclusive company culture, we avoid becoming fixated on local or regional cultural differences that create divisions. Instead, we choose to embrace the uniqueness of each other while also recognizing the commonalities that bring us together.

Furthermore, the asynchronous nature of our working patterns naturally breaks down formal structures which can crowd out voices across a company. Our internal communications team has a dedicated listening strategy to ensure all Krakenites, regardless of level, geographic location etc, have sufficient means to bring their ideas to the forefront. For example, we have run regular skip level surveys and engagement pulses that inform the focus of our monthly leader Ask Me Anything sessions, as well as company wide All Hands meetings.

As a leading fintech company, Kraken is at the forefront of remote-friendly, highly secure, collaborative applications that empower our people to asynchronously collaborate. We utilize a combination of recognized tools to maintain efficient, asynchronous internal communication, and only schedule thoughtful and intentional meetings during ‘live hours’ for verbal collaboration. As a remote-first company, we understand the importance of mitigating fatigue, so place no expectations for our Krakenites to join meetings on camera.

To accelerate our Krakenite’s professional development we create clear workflows and streamline internal processes so that operational tasks and deadlines can be effectively managed. To do this, we’ve integrated tools to provide visibility and accountability to team members while ensuring DRIs (directly responsible individuals) can lead a project’s progress. As such, according to an internal company survey, 85% of our Krakenites feel empowered to make decisions to best serve their team.

Our Krakenites also collaborate on a daily basis in our wide range of internal collaboration channels. These act as small communities of like minded people, and facilitate a continuous flow of knowledge and expertise across the company. Many of our c-suite are also active in these channels and frequently weigh in on discussions. We have a very open-door policy for Krakenites to approach industry-leading subject matter experts, including our c-suite members, who are active and frequently participate in discussions.

With the employee experience as a foundational pillar, we offer comprehensive compensation packages that rewards our Krakenites for their daily efforts. Because we believe our Krakenites should be aligned with the company vision, nearly all of our team members receive equity options. This is combined with globally competitive remuneration, generous (flexible) paid time off, a holistic wellness program, an ergonomic bonus to equip new hires for a personalized home office setup, and performance-based bonus programs.
Finally, given our mission to revolutionize financial services, Kraken’s most unique benefit is the opportunity for Krakenites to accept their payment in different currencies, including Bitcoin and several other cryptocurrencies. Some Krakenites receive their entire salary in crypto, and 35% of our Krakenites choose to accept a partial amount in crypto with the remaining allocation in fiat currencies (such as the US dollar).